Chorography (from χῶρος khōros , "place" and γράφειν graphein , "to write") is the art of describing or mapping a region or district, and by extension such a description or map. This term derives from the writings of the ancient geographer Pomponius Mela and Ptolemy , where it meant the geographical description of regions. However, its resonances of meaning have varied at different times. Richard Helgerson states that "chorography defines itself by opposition to chronicle . It is the genre devoted to place, and chronicle is the genre devoted to time". Darrell Rohl prefers a broad definition of "the representation of space or place".
15-631: Speculum Britanniae ("Mirror of Britain"), published in London from 1593, was a projected, but unfinished, chorography of Britain by John Norden (1548—1625). It was intended to take the form of a series of county maps, accompanied by place-by-place written descriptions. Norden was primarily a surveyor and cartographer , and the written descriptions always had a subsidiary role, being much slighter than other early county histories . Nevertheless, they were based on direct observation, and Norden recorded much topographical and antiquarian detail of interest, including
30-528: A distinction between geography, chorography and topography, arguing that geography dealt with large areas, topography with small areas, but chorography with intermediary areas, being "less in its object than geography, and greater than topography". In practice, however, the term is only rarely found in English by this date. In more technical geographical literature, the term had been abandoned as city views and city maps became more and more sophisticated and demanded
45-512: A presentation manuscript for Queen Elizabeth (now British Library Add. MS 21853), but it remained unpublished. (He did, however, publish maps alone of Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex and probably Kent.) In 1596 he published an explanation and justification of the overall project as Speculum Britanniae: a Preparative to this Work . In 1604, he presented to James I a more expansive description and set of nine maps of Cornwall (later published in 1728). A description of Northamptonshire (which he had surveyed in
60-404: A set of skills that required not only skilled draftsmanship but also some knowledge of scientific surveying . However, its use was revived for a second time in the late nineteenth century by the geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen . He regarded chorography as a specialization within geography, comprising the description through field observation of the particular traits of a given area. The term
75-457: A text. The most influential example (at least in Britain) was probably William Camden 's Britannia (first edition 1586), which described itself on its title page as a Chorographica descriptio . William Harrison in 1587 similarly described his own "Description of Britaine" as an exercise in chorography, distinguishing it from the historical/chronological text of Holinshed's Chronicles (to which
90-488: Is also now widely used by historians and literary scholars to refer to the early modern genre of topographical and antiquarian literature. Lodovico Guicciardini Lodovico Guicciardini (19 August 1521 – 22 March 1589) was an Italian writer and merchant from Florence who lived primarily in Antwerp from 1542 or earlier. He was the nephew of historian and diplomat Francesco Guicciardini . His best-known work,
105-550: The heraldry of tombs , and archaeological sites . The first instalment, Speculum Britanniae: the First Parte: an Historicall, & Chorographicall Discription of Middlesex , was published in 1593. The second, Speculi Britaniae Pars: the Description of Hartfordshire , appeared in 1598. In 1595 Norden wrote a "Chorographical Description" of Middlesex , Essex , Surrey , Sussex , Hampshire , Wight , Guernsey and Jersey , as
120-521: The "Description" formed an introductory section). Peter Heylin in 1652 defined chorography as "the exact description of some Kingdom, Countrey, or particular Province of the same", and gave as examples Pausanias 's Description of Greece (2nd century AD); Camden's Britannia (1586); Lodovico Guicciardini 's Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi (1567) (on the Low Countries ); and Leandro Alberti 's Descrizione d'Italia (1550). Camden's Britannia
135-501: The 1590s, and is known to have completed in 1610) reached print in 1720; and one of Essex (related to, but distinct from, that in the "Chorographical Description") was eventually published in 1840. The idea of a work that was a "mirror" of a land or even of a region of thought had given rise to an extensive medieval " mirror literature ". Chorography In his text of the Geographia (2nd century CE), Ptolemy defined geography as
150-451: The county mapmakers Christopher Saxton and John Norden as "most skilfull (sic) Chorographers"; and Robert Plot in 1677 and Christopher Packe in 1743 both referred to their county maps as chorographies. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the term had largely fallen out of use in all these contexts, being superseded for most purposes by either " topography " or " cartography ". Samuel Johnson in his Dictionary (1755) made
165-413: The practice as "an underling, and a twig of Geographie ", by which the "plat" [plan or drawing] of a particular place would be exhibited to the eye. The term also came to be used, however, for written descriptions of regions. These regions were extensively visited by the writer, who then combined local topographical description, summaries of the historical sources, and local knowledge and stories, into
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#1732869893821180-401: The skills of a draftsman or landscape artist, rather than the more technical skills of recording "proportional placements". Ptolemy's most recent English translators, however, render the term as "regional cartography". Ptolemy's text was rediscovered in the west at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and the term "chorography" was revived by humanist scholars. John Dee in 1570 regarded
195-440: The study of the entire world, but chorography as the study of its smaller parts—provinces, regions, cities, or ports. Its goal was "an impression of a part, as when one makes an image of just an ear or an eye"; and it dealt with "the qualities rather than the quantities of the things that it sets down". Ptolemy implied that it was a graphic technique, comprising the making of views (not simply maps), since he claimed that it required
210-482: Was eventually often applied to the genre of county history . A late example was William Grey's Chorographia (1649), a survey of the antiquities of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne . Even before Camden's work appeared, Andrew Melville in 1574 had referred to chorography and chronology as the "twa lights" [two lights] of history . However, the term also continued to be used for maps and map-making, particularly of sub-national or county areas. William Camden praised
225-426: Was predominantly concerned with the history and antiquities of Britain, and, probably as a result, the term chorography in English came to be particularly associated with antiquarian texts. William Lambarde , John Stow , John Hooker , Michael Drayton , Tristram Risdon , John Aubrey and many others used it in this way, arising from a gentlemanly topophilia and a sense of service to one's county or city, until it
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